


College and Family

by resistate



Category: Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Genre: Gen, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:35:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5466866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resistate/pseuds/resistate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of sisters and aliens and penny banks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	College and Family

**Author's Note:**

  * For [twistedchick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedchick/gifts).



> Thank you to Eida for the brilliant beta!

When Lilo was a very little girl, before her house was obliterated by irresponsible aliens, she and her sister had a collection of penny banks. They had ugly ones and cute ones and ones that were cute and ugly at the same time, like the one that was shaped like a little pig and exactly the same color as the collard greens Nani always tried to make Lilo eat.

They had lots of penny banks that said "funds" on the side, which Nani explained was a fancy word for money, and yes, almost like "fun," except for the extra "d," which Nani said was put there by deranged dentists, and also that Lilo should stop pestering her with questions and brush her teeth right now, this instant.

They had a shiny golden penny bank that said "retirement fund," and Lilo thought that Nani should retire now so she could be there all the time when Lilo got home from school. Nani laughed and said that only really old people who had worked for years and years and had a lot of money saved up could retire. Lilo said that Nani had worked at the fakey luau a really long time, as long as Lilo could remember, but Nani said no, even longer than that, and told Lilo to be good at regular school today, okay, Lilo, please, and that she would pick her up at dance school on her way home from work.

They had a grey penny bank with blue raindrops that said "rainy day fund," until Lilo smashed it with a hammer one afternoon when she was bored. In Lilo's defense, it actually was raining that day. Also in her defense, smashing it was only way to open that particular penny bank. Nani sighed and helped Lilo pick up the coins scattered all over Lilo's bedroom floor. Then Nani made Lilo sit on her bed and add up the coins while Nani picked up all the broken pieces of penny bank and swept the floor for good measure. Nani put half the money in a pink penny bank that didn't have any writing on it and used the other half to buy them ice cream at Charrise's Pudding Parlor. They sat underneath striped umbrellas pattering with rain and licked drips from the sides of their cones. Lilo said that also ALSO in her defense, Nani did not eat enough ice cream. Nani raised both her eyebrows and said it would never hold up in court, and also that Nani hadn't killed her yet, AND that they were having ice cream, so Lilo should probably quit while she was ahead.

They had a penny bank that was a white pig wearing a funny black hat that said "college fund," even though just like she was old enough now to know that Nani was way too young to retire, she knew that girls from small broken families didn't go to college, no matter how old they were. There were mouths to feed and bills to pay and college was a luxury they couldn't afford. And Lilo didn't like how her family was now, exactly, but she was used to it being just her and Nani, together no matter what. The college fund penny bank didn't rattle at all when she shook it.

Lilo named the pig Lux and wedged her between two potted plants on the windowsill above the kitchen sink. Lilo talked to her sometimes when it was her turn to do the dishes. Lux agreed with all of Lilo's opinions about Elvis Presley which was pretty good, except when it was really boring.

Even though there were penny banks crammed onto counters or perched on top of shelves or nestled under tables all over the house, Lilo mostly forgot about them except when Nani made her help with the dusting, or when Nani would finally get tired of listening to Lilo tell her a million and one really super interesting things about the King of Rock and Roll, or when Nani was paying bills. Lilo always knew when Nani was paying bills, because she would hog the whole couch. Nani said stretching out her legs helped her think. Lilo said it made Nani a hog who hogged things. Today she had been a hog for TWO HOURS and why was it TAKING SO LONG. 

They needed to see a social worker and the social worker needed to see their finances and that was all Lilo needed to know, said Nani, and now would Lilo please BE QUIET AND GO AWAY so Nani could hear herself think. Nani sounded more sad than mad which wasn't right and made Lilo even madder than she'd been about Nani hogging the couch.

Lilo stomped out of the living room. She knew that feeling mad was a sign she should do something with the feeling but she wasn't sure what until she stomped into the kitchen and spotted Lux.

Lilo put all the penny banks she could find into an empty cardboard box and dragged the box to the living room. Nani was still stretched out on the couch. There were pieces of paper in her lap and spread out all over the coffee table. 'I can help,' Lilo announced. She pointed to the box. Nani looked inside and then looked at Lilo and now Nani looked like she was going to cry.

'Oh Lilolo,' she said. 'Come here.'

Lilo snuggled against Nani and Nani put her arms around Lilo and held her tight. Lilo knew something was wrong. 'I was only trying to help,' she said.

Nani pulled back so Lilo could see her face and said, 'You know there isn't any money in any of those, right?'

'But they have stuff in them, I heard it rattling around,' Lilo protested. She swatted at Nani's arms and Nani loosened her grip. 'Why do we have so many penny banks anyway?'

Nani had always told Lilo the penny banks were their parents' penny banks before their parents died in the car accident. 'Lilo. You know why.'

Lilo wanted to believe their parents had thought about the future but the facts didn't lie. A social worker who didn't even KNOW Nani or Lilo was probably going to destroy what was left of their stupid broken family and it wasn't FAIR.

'This is not something responsible parents let happen,' she informed Nani. Nani turned her head away. 'They should have been,' she mumbled into the back of the couch. Lilo jumped off her sister onto the floor so she wouldn't be tempted to yank Nani's hair or bite her. 'Don't say that about my parents!' she screamed instead.

'They're my parents too!' Nani screamed back. She grabbed one of the mottled strawberry guavas from the bowl on the coffee table and took a huge bite.

'Copycat!' shouted Lilo. 'I hope that thing is full of BUGS!' She grabbed the edge of the box and started pulling it toward the door. Nani glared at Lilo and took another bite of guava even though Lilo could see her mouth was still full. 'You don't have to say it, I'm going to my room!' Lilo said.

Lilo slammed her bedroom door and cried into her pillow for a little bit. After she stopped crying, she blew her nose and sat cross-legged on the floor next to the box. She carefully opened all the penny boxes. Some had a few coins in them, but most of them just had shells and bits of string and pebbles that Lilo vaguely remembered putting in the penny banks when she was little. She collected seventy-two pennies, three wooden nickels and a nickel from Canada with the Queen of England on one side and a beaver on the other. Lilo shook her head in disgust. She put everything back where she found it except the dollar bill she'd found stuffed inside Lux. After careful deliberation, Lilo put the dollar bill into the coffee tin penny bank with "ice cream fund" written on the side in magic marker that she and Nani had made to replace the rainy day penny bank.

So Lilo wasn't too disappointed to discover all the penny banks had been smashed to pieces at the same time their house had been smashed to pieces. Sure, she had lost Lux, but now she had Stitch, and Stitch was even family. And their house had been rebuilt thanks to a lot of hard work and good music – Elvis was very energizing – and a grant from the United Galactic Federation. Nani said they should be grateful for the grant even though Lilo knew she was mad at the Federation for causing their house to be smashed to pieces in the first place.

Nani said that after they finished rebuilding and she got her first paycheck from the general store she would take Lilo to the big department store out on the highway and they would pick out some stuff for the house.

'So we're going tomorrow, right?' asked Lilo around a mouthful of toothpaste. They had bought stuff like toothpaste and Nani's deodorant at the general store, and there was enough grant money that they could replace their appliances and most of their furniture, but they still needed to buy stuff like a bulletin board for Lilo's drawings. 'And my photographs, too,' Lilo had said. Nani said she was probably getting a new camera for her birthday, and if not, then for Christmas. They also needed new cushions for the couch Mrs. Hasagawa had given them, and laundry baskets so they weren't living in a pigsty.

'Yes, we're going tomorrow,' said Nani, who had finished brushing her teeth and was rinsing her toothbrush in the sink. 'Good,' said Lilo. She waited until Nani was done and spat her toothpaste in the sink. 'It's too late to change my plans. More toothpaste,' she said. Stitch carefully squeezed toothpaste on Lilo's toothbrush and then into his mouth. Nani made a face. 'Wait, what plans?' she asked, but Lilo was brushing her teeth vigorously and Stitch started drawing toothpaste moustaches on the bathroom mirror and Nani got distracted and forgot to follow up. Lilo thought she was pretty tired from all the work on the house and the long hours at her new job, after all.

//

'Hey, Lilo, do you have any more ice?,' asked David. 'Mine's all melted.'

'Talk quieter,' said Lilo. 'Nani is very tired and she needs her rest.' Stitch came in from the kitchen with a jug of ice cubes. 'Okay, never mind, Stitch has the ice. He's actually very helpful,' she said. She put her hands on her hips and faced her guests. 'Don't you agree that Stitch is very helpful?' she asked.

David, Jumba, Pleakley and Cobra Bubbles sat in a row on the new couch, holding glasses of orange juice topped with tiny jaunty umbrellas. David, Jumba and Pleakley nodded enthusiastically. Cobra Bubbles looked at his drink, looked at the umbrella in his drink, took the umbrella out of his drink, tucked the umbrella in an inside pocket in his suit and drained the orange juice in one long gulp.

Stitch was on the arm of the couch pouring way too much ice into David's drink so Lilo said, 'You look like you could use a top up. One sec.'

Unfortunately she ran into Nani as she was leaving the living room. Nani stopped in the middle of tying up her hair and looked at the couch. Jumba and Pleakley were sniffing their own glasses and each other's glasses with what looked like cautious enthusiasm. Cobra Bubbles had his arms crossed and his chin on his chest. Lilo wasn't positive because of his dark glasses, but she thought he might be napping. Stitch was trying to pour the whole jug of ice into David's glass. Displaced orange juice was soaking into David's white T-shirt but he was grinning widely. 'Hi, Nani,' he said cheerfully.

'Hi,' said Nani. She sounded like she might be mad. She turned to Lilo. 'You. Kitchen. Now.' Okay, Nani was definitely mad. Lilo decided to pretend to not notice.

'Oh, good,' she said. 'I think I need to get a tea towel from the kitchen.'

'Lilo, they are not coming shopping with us!' cried Nani as soon as the door swung shut behind them.

'They won't be in the way, I promise,' said Lilo. 'And they can help us carry stuff home. It's a long way and we don't have a car.'

'We're taking the bus!'

'But we only have four hands between us. Well, eight if you count Stitch but his hands aren't very big and they're kind of close together. And we need to get a lot more stuff. Like, like—umbrellas. And orange juice.'

'Did somebody say "orange juice"? This is fascinating, fascinating, I've never tasted anything like it,' said Jumba, strolling into the kitchen. 'Do you happen to have any more of it?'

Nani crossed her arms and looked at Lilo. 'Apparently, we're all out.'

David and Pleakley peeked around the kitchen door. 'Um, Lilo, Nani, is everything okay? It got kind of loud in there,' said David.

Lilo scooted next to Nani and copied her sister's crossed arms. 'It would be really not polite to kick them out after they helped us so much with the house,' she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

'That's my point,' Nani whispered back. 'They've already helped so much, we can't keep just expecting everyone—'

'Stitch can help?' interrupted Stitch in a very loud whisper. Lilo and Nani both jumped. Stitch looked up at them both from his perch on the edge of the counter.

'Please?' said Lilo. 'Stitch wants to help, don't you Stitch.' Stitch gave Nani four solemn thumbs up.

'We all can help,' said Jumba jovially. Pleakley nodded so vigorously his wig slipped off-kilter. Jumba made an abstract motion with his hand next to his own head and Pleakley straightened it. 'I'm keen to see a department store,' Pleakley said.  

'Nani,' said David, 'this is what friends are for. We want to help.'

Nani definitely looked like she was cracking. 'Please,' said Lilo, adding about seven extra syllables for good measure.

'Okay,' said Nani. She unfolded her arms and grabbed her purse from the counter. 'But you have to behave. All of you!'

//

Lilo and Nani's cart was already mostly full when Nani came to a stop in front of a shelf crammed with all different shapes and sizes and colors of penny banks. 'We can pick one each,' Nani said to Lilo, and Lilo gave Nani a look which she hoped conveyed exactly how much Lilo had always known that their penny banks had been her sister all along. Lilo picked a pale purple pig that actually said "ice cream fund." Nani picked a blue guitar with "vacation fund" scrawled on the top. The sound hole was filled in except for a coin-sized slot. After she'd finished examining it Lilo placed it reverently on top of a blanket for Stitch's bed. Nani started to push the cart toward the checkout. Jumba and Pleakley hastily returned some stuff they'd been looking at to the shelf. Jumba grabbed one thing at the last minute and added it to the shopping basket he carried on his arm.

Cobra Bubbles cleared his throat. Lilo and Nani turned to look at him. He held up a familiar white porcelain pig. The pig was wearing a stupid black hat Lilo recognized. She didn't know why but it made her feel mad.

'My treat,' he said.

'But—' said Nani. She gripped the handle of the cart and looked down at her hands for a minute. Then she looked back up at Cobra Bubbles. 'Thank you, that's very kind of you,' she said. She didn't sound like she meant it.

Cobra Bubbles almost smiled. 'Think nothing of it,' he said.

Lilo ran in front of the cart so she was blocking Nani's way. 'No,' said Lilo, crossing her arms. 'No college, no way.'

'But Lilo, why?' asked David, gently.

'Because—because our family is still too small, even with Stitch. And how can anyone pick just one thing to study? It's impossible!' cried Lilo.

Pleakley flicked frantically through his viewfinder. 'But you don't need a family to go to college,' he announced. 'You need money.'

'And a brain,' said Jumba, 'don't forget you need a brain.'

'Oooooh, yes, and a brain,' said Pleakley.

Nani glared at both of them.

'Of course, of course, humans have very good brains already,' said Jumba hurriedly. 'Not as big as 626—I mean, Stitch's brain, but then I created him to be particularly clever and I, I will stop talking now,' he said once he noticed that Nani's glare wasn't going away.

'I borrowed the dollar bill,' Lilo confessed. 'I meant to put it back but then our house was attacked by evil aliens from outer space who destroyed everything. It wasn't my fault!' Lilo paused to catch her breath. 'And, and, and—Elvis Presley didn't go to college!'

'I met Elvis Presley in a Kmart in the continental U.S. in 1979,' said Cobra Bubbles. 'He told me his biggest regret was never going to college.'

'Elvis died in 1977!' screamed Lilo.

Nani knelt and put her hands on Lilo's shoulders. 'Lilo. Lilolo. You know there's a college right in Līhu'e. It's so close, Lilo. We go by it on the bus all the time. Nobody is saying anybody is picking anything to study anytime soon. I don’t know what dollar bill you’re talking about, but Lilo, it's a dollar bill. I'll _give_ you a dollar bill, okay? And some people don't believe Elvis is really dead, but you know that doesn't mean you have to listen to them.'

Cobra Bubbles shrugged. 'It might have been 1976,' he said.

'Okay, Lilo?' said Nani.

'Elvis died in 1977,' mumbled Lilo.

'Lilo!'

'Fine, okay!' Nani's fingers on Lilo's shoulders relaxed, and Lilo twisted out from Nani's reach. 'Hey, Stitch,' she said, reaching for his closest hand. 'Hey, Lilo,' said Stitch. They held hands and slowly Lilo began to feel calmer.

'Hey, Nani, can we go to the beach after we check out?' asked Lilo.

'Oooooh, yes, the beach,' said Pleakley.

'It's a beautiful day for the beach,' said David.

'Me, I like the beach well enough,' said Jumba.

'I've got shades,' said Cobra. He flipped open his suit jacket. 'Also, sunscreen.'

Nani looked hard at Lilo. Lilo tried to make her face show she was feeling better. 'Fine, okay,' said Nani, finally.

'Can Stitch come?'

Nani looked at the ceiling and sighed her most exaggerated sigh. 'Stitch can come,' she said. Lilo cheered. 'And before you ask—'

'Before I ask,' agreed Lilo.

'—everyone is invited to come,' said Nani.

'Nani,' Lilo whispered, right in Nani's ear so no one else would hear, 'are you sure?'

'Lilo,' Nani whispered, right in Lilo's ear so no one else would hear, 'it's the beach. It's public property! I couldn't stop people from coming if I wanted to!'

'But you want them to come,' whispered Lilo.

'I don't want them to not come,' whispered Nani.

'I knew it!' whispered Lilo.

'Beach day,' whispered Stitch. He was on top of the magazine rack in the checkout lane and close enough to Lilo and Nani that they could both hear him.

Lilo and Nani looked at each other and then they both looked at Stitch. 'Beach day,' they whispered.

And it was.

END


End file.
